In the capital of Great Britain, public testing of Harry — self-driving cars, named after the English watchmaker John Harrison, has begun. An autonomous shuttle, accommodating up to 4 passengers, runs along North Greenwich, near the O2 Arena stadium. The driverless bus is a redesigned model of the Ultra Pod, which already carries passengers from London Heathrow Airport. The capsule travels relatively slowly — at a speed of up to 16 kilometers per hour, which minimizes the risk of an accident. In addition, there is always a human operator in the cockpit, who can take over the controls in case of an emergency. Thanks to cameras and lasers, Harry is able to «see» obstacles on the way and go around them without relying on GPS and other navigation systems.

As Engadget notes, for every eight hours of travel, the shuttles collect 4 terabytes of data needed to analyze the traffic situation. Later, this information can be used in other projects related to self-propelled transport.

The GATEway Project research project is funded by the UK government. The cost of the initiative is estimated at 8 million pounds.